


Preliminary Matters

by coruscantguard (nadiavandyne), nadiavandyne



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, First Dates, Flirting, Fluff, Friendship, Get Together, Humor, Kind of? I think?, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:07:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27322465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nadiavandyne/pseuds/coruscantguard, https://archiveofourown.org/users/nadiavandyne/pseuds/nadiavandyne
Summary: "Pleasetell me that you didn't spend your entire week on Naboo with her talking politics and sentient rights abuses and all those other possible deal breakers.”Padmé opens her mouth to respond. Then shuts it. Sabé’s expression turns to despair.“Padmé,” Sabé says, “youdidn’t.”
Relationships: Aayla Secura & Finn Ertay, Padmé Amidala & Sabé, Padmé Amidala/Aayla Secura
Comments: 9
Kudos: 56
Collections: Femslash Exchange 2020





	Preliminary Matters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skatzaa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skatzaa/gifts).



Aayla manages to corner Finn outside of the Room of a Thousand Fountains three hours before she’s planning to start getting ready. It's later than she would like, but not date-ruining late, as long as Commander Doom comes through, and according to Tiplar, he's very reliable.

“Knight Ertay," Aayla greets once she's arrived close enough to be heard over the excited chattering of nearby younglings. "Do you have a moment? I have a matter that may require your assistance.”

Finn looks over at her, grins. Waves, and the tiny Mirilian youngling at her feet follows suit. It's unreasonably adorable. "Knight-- or, well, actually-- _Master_ Secura! Good to see you!"

"Good to see you!" the youngling at Finn's feet echos, and Aayla doesn't grin, but she knows the way her lekku curl gives her away anyway. Oh well.

"I'm afraid I have the half an hour after this blocked out," Finn continues, "but if it's quick, I probably can do it right now."

Aayla pauses, weighs her options. Puts her hand flat in the air and rocks it back and forth. "Kind of? There's a later part that isn't, but that's this evening."

Finn looks at her impassively for a moment, then grins, shrugs with both her shoulders and her lekku. "Well, you've got me, I'm curious now." She turns to look at the youngling, bows solemnly. "Initiate Dorjee."

Thee youngling-- Dorjee, it seems-- copies her movements. "Knight Finn!"

Finn grins, then crouches down, gets a fist bump. "Remember what I said about Master Billaba, Initiate."

Dorjee grins back at her. "I will!"

It takes another few moments for Finn to return the kid to the crechemaster, but soon enough Finn comes back, and Aayla tilts her head to the left, starts walking. Finn falls in step behind her.

"Master Billaba?" Aayla asks, and Finn hums, low in the back of her throat. "Do I want to know what you told him about Master Billaba?"

"Probably not, " Finn admits. "It wasn't anything _bad_ , but... probably not."

Aayla nods. "Should I be on the lookout for precariously floating buckets of paint when I go through doorways?" she asks, because it's always best to be prepared with these kinds of things. Finn snorts.

"Aayla, you should always be on the lookout for precariously floating buckets of paint when you go through doorways."

Aayla presses her lips together. That's fair. "I'm going on a date tonight," she says instead, drawing her back to the original point of the conversation.

"You're going on a date."

"Yes. And I require your assistance, if you don't mind giving it."

"You're going on a date and you need my help."

"Yes."

Finn pauses. Blinks. Stops walking, forcing Aayla to stop as well, and turn around. “Am I in the twilight zone?”

“No." Aayla frowns. "Why would you be in the Twilight Zone?"

"Well, you're asking me for help, and you're obviously in a hurry, which are two things that rarely happen when you're around.

Ah. Yes. Well... she does have a point. "I just have a date,” Aayla says archly, and she holds up her hand when Finn’s eyes went wide. “I have a date, and it’s with a Senator, and I’d rather it not become a diplomatic incident.”

“Well, you’re more logical than your Master,” Finn replies, grinning, because Finn likes to look threats in the eyes while she pokes them.

It’s much more enjoyable to witness when Aayla is not the target of it.

“It would be boring if we were the same,” Aayla says, then snaps her fingers. “Focus. Date.”

Finn’s lekku twitch in the way Aayla knows speaks of her amusement. “Date,” Finn agrees, tipping her head forward, eyes wide. Dusty rose lips curl up into a smile, and her lekku fall over her shoulder. “I presume you don’t want help with the date itself?”

“You presume correctly,” Aayla says dryly. “No. Security.”

Finn’s lek right lek curls backwards, an expression of her doubt, and she rocks back on her hee;s. “You think you’re going to run into trouble?”

“I think I’d rather not take the chance,” Aayla corrects. Pauses, then-- “You’ll get free drinks out of it.”

“Well damn, Secura, you know how to win a girl’s heart,” Finn says, lekku straightening. “Alright, sure, I’ll play security. Just me, or…?”

“Both Stass and Tiplar owe you a few favors, do they not?” Aayla asks. “Bring them along, if you desire.”

Finn’s lekku tilt with her head. “Not Tiplee?”

Aayla blinks at her. It is a purposeful blink. It is a purposeful blink speaking from _experience._ “Do you _want_ to ride herd on a drunk Tiplee?”

“... You have a point.”

-

“For someone about to go on a date, you’re very downcast,” Sabé observes as she paints Padmé's lips a ruby red. Since it's Sabé who's making the observation, Padmé knows it's not a coincidence that it's timed perfectly to make sure that she can't answer immediately. Sabé likes to be able to finish her thoughts with her ideal amount of dramatic flair. "Want a fake emergency to occur?"

" _No_ ," Padmé says when Sabé finally moves the tube away from her lips. "And I'm not downcast."

Sabé eyes her doubtfully. "You... kind of are. You don't need to tell me, but don't try to lie to me, you're horrific at it."

"Oh, kriff off, I'm a great liar" Padmé says, and Sabé makes an obvious noise of disbelief that Padmé chooses to ignore. She instead considers not responding to the rest of Sabé's question, weighs the pros and cons of taking the out she's giving her. She considers it very deeply. She does not particularly want to respond to that line of questioning, does not want to think about the glaring questions that have been bouncing around her brain since the moment Aayla left the diner. 

But she is thinking about it. She very much is thinking about it, and it’s _Sabé,_ and Sabé does have experience with these kinds of things.

Dates, that is. Not dates with Jedi. Her life would be much easier if she knew someone who'd gone on a date with a Jedi.

“My date is a Jedi,” Padmé admits dejectedly. “She's a Jedi _Master_ _,_ actually, even though she only just got the role. But she's a Jedi Master, and... I mean, I should've just asked her, but my brain was kind of stuck on the fact that she was asking me out when she, you know, asked me out. But can Jedi even have long-term committed relationships?”

Sabé’s moves her head a little further to the right and stares at Padmé. Sabé doesn't actually need to do that, but Padmé is pretty sure she's going for the optimal judgement position for this stare. It is, admittedly, a very good judgemental stare.

"And..." Padmé starts, looking down at her hands. She's unknowingly twisted them together in her lap in her anxiety. That's... not ideal. She's a politician, she doesn't do things unknowingly. "I don't know if she's going to want a relationship out of this, either. If she does, do you think it would have to be secret? Because I'm not opposed to that, exactly, Force knows I spend enough of my life in the limelight, but I also don't want to cause a scandal."

Sabé's expression does something very complex at that. Padmé waits, still staring down at her hands, because yes, she knows she should’ve accounted for that and taken time to think about it instead of just saying yes, but doesn’t want to hear Sabé say that-- despite the fact that it’s the truth. Sabé is helping her get ready, though, so the least Padmé can do is sit through her chiding

“Padmé.”

"What?" Padmé asks, looking up. She expects to see pity, or worry in Sabé's face.

She does not expect to see amusement.

“This is the _first date_ ,” Sabé says, empathizing the already stressed words with dramatic hand flourishes. She looks like she’s enjoying Padmé’s pain all too much. “You don’t even know her. For all you know, you’re going to hate her.”

“I know her!” Padmé protests, “I spent a week in Naboo with her!”

Sabé pauses at that. "You're going on a date with Knight Secura?"

"It's Master Secura now," Padmé corrects, "and yes."

“Master Secura, right," Sabé says. " _Please_ tell me that you didn't spend your entire week on Naboo with her talking politics and sentient rights abuses and all those other possible deal breakers.”

Padmé opens her mouth to respond. Then shuts it. Sabé’s expression turns to despair.

“ _Padmé_ ,” Sabé says, “you _didn’t_.”

“...She’s got very strong opinions on the effects the Stark-Hyperspace War had on the Republic?” Padmé sheepishly offers. “And she thinks the fact that the Senate refuses to let the Jedi interfere with Zygerria’s slave trade is despicable?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be a romantic?”

“It was romantic! We had a picnic! I wore that yellow dress!”

Sabé’s face goes through another complex set of motions. “Right. Okay. Nevermind then. You probably won’t hate her.” She pauses, then-- “so, did you jump her bones immediately after she condemned the Senate’s acceptance of Zygerria’s bribes, or were you civilized enough to wait until you got to a bed?”

Padmé's mouth falls open. “I did not _jump her bones_.”

“Right, and I’m actually Rabé.”

“I didn’t! She’s a Jedi!”

“Are Jedi not allowed to have sex?”

And there they were, back at the original problem. “I don’t _know_! According to the romance holobooks, no!”

“Are the romance holobooks an accurate source of information?”

“I DON’T KNOW.”

Sabé isn’t laughing at her because Sabé is too composed and too intelligent to laugh at her while she’s in throwing distance of couch cushions, but she definitely wants to. Padmé mock-glares at her.

“You could _ask_ her,” Sabé suggests, after a few moments. There’s an odd expression on her face, and Padmé nearly asks her about it, before remembering that they’re on a time limit. 

Padmé grimaces. She could, yes, but this is still new enough, still tentative enough, that she doesn't want to push too far, ask too much. She knows, logically, that they are going to need to have this conversation, and that it's one better held sooner than later, but…

First date soon seems a little too soon. There's a chance that she's wrong, of course— out of the four of them, Sabé _was_ the one who had the most experience with dates, but she'd still rather not do it tonight anyway. 

"I am not going to interrogate the stunning Jedi Knight on our first date," Padmé says.

"Do you really want to get attached before you figure out the logistics of a possible relationship?"

Padmé thinks about that one for a second. "Yes," she decides. Sabé sighs. Loudly.

"So telling you that going into this blind is a bad idea would probably be useless?"

“You know me so well,” Padmé says, looking up at her. Sabé sighs again. 

“Best finish getting you in your makeup, then,” Sabé says. “Eyes closed. Do NOT move, unless you want to call your Jedi Knight-- sorry, _Master_ \-- and tell her that you’re going to be late because of a horrific eyeliner fluke.”

-

The booth that Commander Doom recommended is both secluded, and an excellent vantage point. As she sits down, Aayla makes a mental note to thank him when she sees him next.

Padmé smiles at her, and it's small but real, authentic. Her Force signature is glowing, almost like the sun. Aayla basks in it as she smiles back. "Senator Amidala," she greets taking Padmé's hand to brush a kiss on her knuckles.

Padmé _probably_ would be okay with Aayla calling her by her given name-- she did agree to go on this date, after all-- but... better safe than sorry.

"Master Secura," Padmé replies, mimicking her formality. "Please, call me Padmé."

"Aayla," she returns. "If I may, you look breathtaking."

Breathtaking is too small of a word to describe it, but all of the truly accurate terms are in Ryl, and she has a feeling that Ryl is not one of the languages taught to young politicians on Naboo.

"As do you," Padmé says, and Aayla would think it nothing more than a polite reply, except for the fact that Padmé's conviction radiates through the Force, mixed in with a blend of thoughts that are... very flattering indeed. Aayla manages not to blush, despite the sudden warmth she feels in her chest, but she then feels her lekku twist behind her and mentally curses the fact that she decided not to bind them tonight.

Padmé probably can't see her lekku though, so... it's fine.

And hopefully even if she can seem them, she doesn't understand what the movements mean, anyway. Aayla feels her lekku twitch again in embarrassment, and silently curses them.

Oh Force have mercy, _please_ don't let Padmé know anything about lekku beyond the basics.

"Have you looked at the menu yet?" Aayla asks as she pulls one of the flimsiplast menus towards her, and looks it over. Flimsi menus are a rarity on Coruscant, but she'd gotten used to tracking down restaurants that had them back when she was a padawan, and she figured out that the reason Quin was reluctant to take her out to eat while in the Core Worlds wasn't because of any issues with _restaurants_ , but because it was near impossible to navigate a touch screen with gloves on. It's become a habit by now, to automatically disregard touchscreen only establishments when searching for a place to go, even though neither Padmé nor her actually would have issues with using a holopad.

"I gave it a glance, but I haven't decided on anything yet," Padmé says, opening up her own menu. "I'll admit, I'm not that familiar with most of the dishes they offer."

"Neither am I, actually," Aayla admits, "a friend of mine recommended this place, actually. It's a Shilian-Corellian fusion restaurant. According to her, it's very tasty."

"That's good to hear," Padmé replies, a touch sardonic, but she's smiling, her eyes alight with mirth. "It would be a shame if she recommended some place that did not fulfill that requirement."

Aayla snorts, grins. "Well, to be fair... we do have very different taste buds, so there is a chance that this could get very interesting." She pauses, tilts her head. "I have had a human friend vouch for it though."

"A human friend who's taste buds you trust?"

" _Well_..." Aayla trails off. Padmé's laughter is a full-body thing, genuine in it's amusement, and Aayla finds herself smiling reflexively at it, her left lek curling up around her bicep. "No, no, I _do_ trust his taste, he's just Mandalorian, and his preferences tend towards eye-wateringly spicy."

She hadn't known that Tiplee's eyes could go that wide, but whatever savory cake Commander Doom had created had certainly done the trick. Commander Bly had forwarded the security camera footage to her while she was on a stakeout, and she'd nearly revealed her _own_ location upon watching it, she'd laughed so hard.

"I suppose it's a good thing I'm wearing waterproof makeup, then," Padmé says.

"Better safe than sorry," Aayla agrees, grinning.

-

  
"How many of them are your people?" Padmé asks at the end of their meal, and she takes advantage of Aayla's brief moment of surprise to slide her credit card into the check, and return it to their waitress.

"My people?" Aayla asks in return, and it's smooth, composed, sounding genuinely befuddled. It's impressive. If Padmé hadn't just specifically seen that split-second of surprise on her face, she would've believed her. 

"I am a foreign dignitary," Padmé points out, "and you're a Jedi. We're both relatively valuable targets on our own, but together? Someone could get a lot of credits from us, if they managed to catch us unaware. It's only logical to assume that you brought along guards to prepare for that eventuality."

Aayla studies her for a second, then lets out a huff of laughter. "I should've figured that you'd notice," she says ruefully, shaking her head. "Three. All Jedi. And you?"

"You don't think that I gave my guards the night off because I predicted you'd bring along protection for the both of us?"

"Absolutely not," Aayla replies instantly, her voice dry, startling a laugh out of Padmé. "You have more sense than that, milady." 

Point. Not bringing along protection solely because of a hunch would incredibly foolish. Padmé isn't a Senator for _nothing_.

"Four in the building," she admits, "and two out back, although none of them are in the possession of lightsabers."

"Lightsabers do make things easier," Aayla concedes, reaching over to pick up her drink and take a sip.

Hm... speaking of lightsabers...

"It's perfectly alright if you'd rather not tell me, but I must admit, I am curious. Do Jedi use their lightsabers as everyday tools, such as, say, knives?"

A moment of silence. Then--

“Are you _trying_ to make me spit out my drink?”

“No!” Padmé bursts out laughing, and shit, if she keeps this up, she’s going to be the one spitting out her drink. “No, no, I’m not, I’m just wondering, I’m curious.”

“Do I use my lightsaber as a knife?" Aayla repeats her question incredulously, but she’s grinning as she says it, wide and happy. If it was anyone else, Padmé might feel like she’s being mocked, but-- there’s nothing malicious in the lines of Aayla’s body, in her easy smile and laughing eyes and the way her lek wraps around her arm. 

"I feel like it would make for an efficient one," Padmé says, and somehow, impossibly, Aayla grins wider.

"Well, you're not _wrong_ ," Aayla admits, "but anything can be a knife if you try hard enough." Padmé's hands come up to her mouth as she starts laughing. " _Anything_."

"A blaster?"

"Simply shoot a line of slightly overlapping bolts."

"That was a quick answer," Padmé observes, and still snickering behind her hand. "Are you... speaking from experience?"

It sounds like she's speaking from experience. It sounds very much like she's speaking from experience.

" _I_ never did that," Aayla says delicately.

"But someone you know did?"

Padmé grins at the expression Aayla makes. _Pure Sabbac._

"My master is a creative problem solver," Aayla starts, then pauses for a beat. Padmé looks at her, wide-eyed, then starts laughing again. "And he is _very_ fond of ruining my Grandmaster's dates. Nothing like a line of blaster bolts through the door to kill the mood, or so I'm told."

Her Grandmaster's _dates_? Did that mean that Jedi could date?

"Oh, _Force_ ," Padmé says in between giggles, forcing herself to set that question to the side. "Oh Force, oh _no_."

"I believe what my Grandmaster said had a few more expletives in it, but yes, that was the essence of his reaction," Aayla responds.

"Well, thank you for not bringing along backup that would be inclined to do that to us, then," Padmé says, right as she catches a glimpse of the waitress returning. "And thank you so much for inviting me out tonight. I had a lovely time."

"Likewise," Aayla says, and her smile is warm, her hazel eyes practically glowing in the restaurant's low-light. "Believe me Padmé, it was very much my pleasure."

**Author's Note:**

> \- skatzaa, I hope you enjoyed! PadméAayla is honestly one of my favorite pairings, and I had a _lot_ of fun writing this.
> 
> \- Hopeless romantic Padmé Amidala is a concept very near and dear to my heart, ngl. The push and pull of Padmé wanting _spontaneity_ and _romance_ but also being a meticulous planner and overachiever who probably had her entire life planned out in a journal at age eight is a push and pull that I am very fond of. Sabé is long suffering. 
> 
> Padmé: What do you think her opinions on marriage are? Depending on whether or not it occurs during my time as a Senator, that will affect the proceedings, at least in Naboo.  
> Sabé: ... You've known her for three hours.  
> Padmé: A relationship is a long term commitment, if I'm going to enter one I'll need to adjust my life plan accordingly.  
> Sabé: You've known her for _THREE HOURS_.
> 
> \- Come talk to me on Tumblr [@coruscantguard!](https://coruscantguard.tumblr.com/)


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